Hand-held control assemblies associated with lightweight airborne devices such as kites, model airplanes and similar airfoils usually comprise one or more reels upon which tethers are wound or unwound as part of various control maneuvers. These devices necessarily include a handle for support as well as additional hand cranks or other graspable implements for activating one or more reels. Specimens of the prior art devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,129 Kinsey, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,567 Post. The rewinding of one or more tethers requires considerable effort, yet this rewinding must be done with a single hand since the other hand is necessarily supporting the device. Moreover, when the two reels are independently mounted as in Post above, the tethers cannot be rewound simultaneously as is often required during the control of a mulit-tether kite.
The braking of certain kites requires a differential recoiling of the tethers controlling the leading and trailing edges of the kite upon synchronized pairs of reels in which the reel trailing edges of tether must lag the recoil of the leading edge tether reel. Thus, compounding the aforesaid rewinding difficulties.
Kites and other free-flying airfoils are also used to provide a towing force to water skiers, surfers, as well as riders of some wheeled land vehicles. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,182 Roeseler et al., the kite control apparatus, in such case, can be complex, and particularly awkward, if not impossible, to support with a single hand when the other hand is busy activating the tether rewinding mechanism.
The instant invention results from an attempt in improving the controllability of single as well as multi-tethered kites, and other such free-flying airfoils.